Solving Minnesota's Achievement Gap

FACT SHEET | Investing in Early Learning 2016 Budget for a Better Minnesota To help understand the flaws in this document the reader should understand when children learn. Child Development, Timeline: • Eighty percent of brain development happens by 3. • At sixteen months, a difference in vocabulary can be seen between children of low, modest, and high-income children. • By age two, scientists can predict 3rd-grade reading scores. • Chronic stress impedes development; poverty is the primary driver of…

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Based on an article from WCCO, ‘During a visit to a Newport Elementary classroom,’ The administration estimates the proposal would affect 47,300 students in its first year, eventually growing to roughly 57,000’ children would be enrolled in UPK.’ (http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2015/03/20/gov-dayton-proposes-free-preschool-for-4-year-olds/) Average number of births in Minnesota is approximately 69,000, and the average number of students in each grade in school is approximately 68,000. However 57,000 seems to be a reasonable number based on other states that are pushing UPK. Minnesota Cost…

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Breaking down this document to see where it lines up with Research. • Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten: Helping more Families Afford Early Learning.  Discusses closing the achievement gap and moving the state closer to Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten.  Research shows that this will have little impact on the Achievement Gap because age 4 is just too late for impoverished children and those not in poverty gain little from this. • Tackling the Achievement Gap  Poverty is the cause of the Achievement…

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